Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Clare Daly for bringing this Bill to the House. If there was ever a Bill I would like to support, it is this one. However, as the Minister already stated in his opening remarks, this Bill is unconstitutional and a referendum would be required to amend the Constitution. However, I believe Deputy Clare Daly knows this very well and, therefore, I cannot support this Bill at this time.

I, like many Members, have met and spoken to many couples who have had to face the devastating news that their unborn child will not survive outside the womb due to a fatal foetal abnormality. We have all listened to the heart-wrenching stories of women who have travelled abroad to have their pregnancies terminated and the very sad stories of their journeys home without their babies.

I believe that in our maternity hospitals today, especially in the Coombe, the Rotunda and Holles Street in Dublin, the women who are diagnosed with a fatal foetal abnormality or other serious conditions in their pregnancies are shown nothing but compassion and support by not only the doctors and the nursing staff but by everybody working around them.

I welcome the Minister's comments regarding the Crisis Pregnancy Agency which is currently in discussions with maternity services to support the implementation of the draft standards for bereavement care following pregnancy and perinatal loss. I believe this is already happening on a personal basis each day in our hospitals. I welcome the fact that these standards have been developed to assist and direct all health care professionals in their provision of bereavement care to patients, including those who receive a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality.

Whether it is in the lifetime of this Government or the next, I sincerely hope that a legal solution can be found to give this group of parents every opportunity to remain in their own country to be cared for, surrounded by their loving family and friends, who can fully support them through the very difficult time when they have been diagnosed and received this terrible news.

As a mother and a grandmother of three beautiful grandchildren, I believe that every mother wants to have a pregnancy that goes well but when the devastating news comes that things are not always right, it is only through the support of one's family and friends that one can cope through that difficult time, whether one's baby survives or not.

I thank Deputy Clare Daly for bringing this Bill to the House but, unfortunately, this legislation, as it stands, is unconstitutional and, therefore, I cannot support it.

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